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Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for May 2010

Practical eCommerce asks industry insiders each month to share a great, innovative idea that could help an ecommerce company. Here’s what ten of them had to say for the May 2010 installment of “Great Ecommerce Ideas.”

Study Your Competitors’ SEO

“Study and learn why your direct competitors rank above you on search engines by looking at their code. Using your browser’s ‘View Source’ function, determine what puts them on top for specific keywords, then you can beat them at their own game on your website.”

Focus on Your Key Message

“Don’t use lengthy product descriptions in general lists of products, like categories or search results. Web visitors will simply scan over long sections of text and can miss your value proposition. Better to focus on your key message for product lists.”

Aim for Quality Backlinks

“Getting many links to your site is key when it comes to ranking well in the search engines, but quality counts. Aim for backlinks from related sites, from pages that don’t have a lot of other links, and ask for anchor text that includes your keywords rather than just your company name.”

Give Localized Delivery Information

“Give customers localized information about delivery and shipping times for their particular location, which can be the deciding factor in making a sale. To make this process accurate, inventory levels should be updated in real-time, with localized delivery dates based on stock and incoming purchases.”

Put Your Phone Number in the Title Tag

“If you make sales by phone, include your telephone number in the main title tag of your home page. This way, someone can call you without visiting your home page, because the phone number will also appear, in bold-face, in Google search results. Featuring your telephone number prominently is also a signal of honesty and transparency.”

Good, Better, Best

“Consumers love to be told what to do. In a day when information overload is the norm, keeping things simple and direct is key. Telling a customer what is a good choice, a better choice, and finally the best choice, is a very good way to increase conversion rate and help your customers find what they want quickly.”

Make Web Pages Load Faster

“The faster your page loads the more Google likes your site [and users, too]. Take a look at implementing things like gzip compression, which can usually be done with a few lines of code. Suitable code can be easily found by a quick search on the Internet.”

Warn Consumers of Scams

“Search and monitor social media networks and other Web 2.0 platforms for new scams on a regular basis. If you find your company is being victimized by a scam, warn consumers through various mediums, including the company page on your social networks, your corporate website, an official tweet on Twitter, and the official company fan site.”

Have a Great Newsletter

“Make your newsletters fun and/or insightful. The vast majority of newsletters in the world are boring and one-sided. Use your newsletter to show your customers what your company is doing to help them. Give them a reason to open it, read it, and look forward to it.”

Make User Guides Available

“Shoppers like to be able to view or print product user guides or manuals, particularly when looking at consumer electronics products. User guides not only help shoppers select the right product, but can also prevent returns. These documents are commonly available as PDF files included in the product content made available by your vendors via hosted content links.”

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Comment ( 1 )

LOVE the phone number tip. That’s so basic and easy to implement. Why didn’t *I* think of it?! Have already done it. Thanks!

I used Tip No. 1 when I created a site for a new company I launched 2 years ago (usa2you.nl). Gathered up all the competition’s sites and "stole" the keywords of the ones that showed up on Google’s first page for search terms that were relevant to us.